Q1 net revenue climbs 21.4% at e-commerce operator Yoox Group

Yoox Group, an Italian retailer that sells online and operates e-commerce sites for other brands, says its Q1 net revenue rose 21.4% year over year to reach 110.4 million euros (US $145.26 million) compared with 91.0 million euros (US $119.74 million) in Q1 2012.

In reporting its first quarter financials, Yoox disclosed that it would be closing the U.S. e-commerce site it operates for Diesel S.p.A., an Italian designer of apparel for young women and men.

Yoox, No. 69 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Europe Guide, says the average number of monthly unique visitors to its numerous luxury sites remained about even at 13.5 million in the first quarter, compared to 13.4 million in Q1 2012. Its number of active customers increased by 15.2% to 977,000 from 848,000 a year earlier. An active customer is a customer who has placed an order on a Yoox site in the past 12 months. The retailer’s number of orders increased 16.0% to 680,000 thousand from 586,000 in Q1 of 2012 and average order size rose 6.0% to 211 euros (US$277.63) compared to 199 euros (US $261.86) a year earlier.

Yoox Group divides its businesses into what it calls its multi-brand line, which includes company-owned e-commerce sites Yoox.com, TheCorner.com and Shoescribe.com, and its mono-brand line, which includes the set-up and management of luxury retail sites for brands such as Bottega Veneta, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga and Sergio Rossi.

Its multi-brand line sales reached 79.0 million euros (US $103.95 million) in Q1 up 23.8% from 63.8 million euros (US $83.95 million) a year earlier. Multi-brand accounted for 71.6% of sales in Q1 2013 compared to 70.2% a year earlier. Meanwhile, its mono-brand line posted revenue of 31.4 million euros (US $41.10 million), up nearly 16% from 27.1 million euros (US $27.7 million a year earlier. Its mono-brand line accounted for 28.4% of sales, compared with 29.8% in the same quarter a year ago.

“In the first three months of 2013, Yoox continued along its growth path” says Federico Marchetti, founder and CEO of the Yoox Group. “We are particularly pleased with the results achieved in Italy, which recorded double-digit growth rates for the second consecutive quarter, confirming the trust that our customers have in the Yoox brand.”

On Tuesday, Yoox signed a deal with Giorgio Armani to relaunch Armani.com. The relaunch is slated to go live in Q3. On Wednesday, Yoox launched the online store dodo.it, which sells mainly in Europe and North America.

Also this week Yoox signed a deal with OTB, a holding company for many high-end fashion brands, extending its contract to operate maisonmartinmargiela.com for two more years under the same financial terms, a contract that now goes through the end of 2017. Yoox also recently extended its contract to operate and manage the online stores for the Italian designer brand Diesel for an additional six years. Diesel will focus on further building its operations in Europe and Japan, and the online merchant is considering expanding into China.

However, Yoox says Diesel will shutter its U.S. e-commerce operations at the end of 2013. The U.S. site accounted for approximately 2% of Yoox Group’s net revenues in 2012. Diesel’s U.S. site’s average order value was significantly lower than the average for Yoox’s mono-brand business line in the U.S., the company says.